Chennai: The Madras High Court on Friday dismissed a writ petition filed by TVK chief and actor Vijay challenging an Income Tax department order that imposed a penalty of ₹1.50 crore for alleged non-disclosure of income during the 2015–16 assessment year.
Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy rejected the petition, holding that the penalty order had been passed within the prescribed time limit and did not suffer from any legal infirmity warranting interference by the court. With this observation, the judge dismissed the plea.
When Vijay’s counsel sought liberty to challenge the penalty order further, the court said it was open to the petitioner to approach the appropriate appellate authority for relief.
The court had reserved its verdict on January 23 after hearing arguments from both sides.
According to Vijay, he had declared an income of ₹35.42 crore for the financial year 2016–17. However, the Income Tax department, relying on documents seized during a raid conducted at his residence in 2015, alleged that he had failed to disclose income of ₹15 crore earned from the Tamil film Puli.
Based on these findings, the department imposed a penalty of ₹1.50 crore through an order dated June 30, 2022. Vijay challenged this order before the High Court, following which a single judge had stayed the operation of the penalty order on August 16, 2022. With Friday’s ruling, that challenge now stands dismissed, leaving Vijay to pursue remedies before the appellate authority.
